Bank wins top honors for marketing

PlainsCapital Bank took top honors for a multimedia marketing campaign and inspired another first-time award given by a national business group.

The American Bankers Association honored PlainsCapital with a 2003 Best of the Best Award for its "No Fences" campaign and also gave a special award for branding. ABA awarded Best of the Best Awards to 10 organizations and chose from among 485 entries.

PlainsCapital entered billboard and radio advertisements, a corporate brochure, bank product line brochures and the PlainsCapital Corp. Web site design and content, according to information from the company. The bank's marketing department worked with an advertising agency, Hybrid, of Dallas.

The bank is part of PlainsCapital Corp., headquartered in Dallas, and has 23 branches statewide, including three offices in Amarillo and one in Canyon.

Carol Towne is executive vice president and director of marketing for PlainsCapital Corp. She is based in Dallas.

"What we did was study the history and background of the company and really get in touch with the roots, and the roots are totally West Texas," Towne said.

"What I found out were all the West Texas values play extremely well in all our markets," she said.

While PlainsCapital Bank locations are all in Texas, the company's mortgage companies are also in 21 other states, primarily in the Midwest, Towne said.

"The idea of West Texas values and the 'No Fences' theme plays well in those states," she said.

The idea of "No Fences" aims to convey that even though PlainsCapital Corp. has 10 companies, there is a single point of customer contact, Towne said.

"Their (the customer's) relationship manager will help them with any service that might come from any of our nine other companies within the bank," she said.

George Sell is Amarillo region chairman of PlainsCapital Bank.

"Branding our company to reflect our West Texas heritage and the scope of services that we offer has helped us to both create new customer relationships and strengthen our relationships with current customers," he said in a statement.

Dr. Leigh Browning is assistant professor of mass communications and director of broadcasting at West Texas A&M University.

"Branding makes all the difference in the world if you are in competition with like businesses," Browning said.